Definition of "backward"

backward

/ˈbæk.wə(ɹ)d/

adjective
comparative more backward, superlative most backward
1. Situated toward or at the rear of something.
2. Acting or moving in the direction opposite to that in which someone or something is facing.
3. Acting or moving in the direction opposite to the usual direction of movement.
4. (figuratively) Acting or moving oppositely to the desired direction of progress.
5. Reversed in order or sequence.
6. Reluctant or unable to advance or act.
  Quotations
  The effect is to retard their progress—giving them too little opportunity and too little incentive for copying the language of adults— and a little later the child is pained and the parents' ears tingle at hearing a chance remark: “ How terribly backward she is about talking."
  1882, Charles Edward Page, How to feed the baby to make it healthy and happy, page 133
  The fact that a child is backward in talking is no sign of defective intelligence, nor does it prove that it will be a slow pupil.
  1910, Leonard Keene Hirshberg, What You Ought to Know about Your Baby, page 19
  Then her eyes, always alert for the affairs of her kitchen, fell on some action of the Chinese cook which aroused her violent disapproval. She turned on him with a torrent of abuse. The Chink was not backward to defend himself, and a very lively quarrel ensued.
  1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 51”, in The Moon and Sixpence
  Rickety children are backward in teething, and when the teeth do appear, they decay very rapidly. The children are backward in walking and backward in talking and the soft-spot (fontanel) on the top of the head remains open months longer than it should.
  1925, Louis Fischer, The Health-care of the Baby: A Handbook for Mothers and Nurses, page 170
  Don't be backward in suggesting story ideas to local media but always think of the wants, needs and desires of their readers when selling-in story ideas.
  2003 August, “Media Prospecting”, in Mortgage Magazine‎, archived from the original on 20 August 2006
7. (figuratively) Of a culture, country, practice etc., undeveloped or unsophisticated.
  Quotations
  Most cruelly, the immediate security interests of the United States and the states surrounding Somalia are now to keep it a failed state, to prevent Islamists from consolidating even a weak state centered on Mogadishu. The leader of the victorious faction, one Aden Hashi 'Ayro, is said to be a veteran of Afghanistan; he knows well what a small sanctuary in a backward corner of the globe can mean for al Qaeda.
  2006, Tom Donnelly, “Back to Mogadishu?”, in Armed Forces Journal‎, archived from the original on 8 January 2009
8. (figuratively) Slow to apprehend; having difficulties in learning.
9. Lacking progressive or enlightened thought; outdated.
10. Late or behindhand.
  Quotations
  " […] I've a job of work to finish tonight; mourning, as must be in time for the funeral to-morrow; and grandfather has been out moss- hunting, and will not be home till late.""Oh, how charming it will be! I'll help you if you're backward. Have you much to do?"
  1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton
  We have had a long run of heavy, wet and squally weather; the dry season is two months backward, and the Lepidoptera have not appeared so abundantly as they should have done.
  1855, The zoologist: a popular miscellany of natural history, Volume 14‎
  Rickety children are backward in teething, and when the teeth do appear, they decay very rapidly.
  1925, Louis Fischer, The Health-care of the Baby: A Handbook for Mothers and Nurses, page 170
11. (chess) Of a pawn, further behind than pawns of the same colour on adjacent files and unable to be moved forward safely.
12. (cricket) On that part of the field behind the batsman's popping crease.
13. (cricket) Further behind the batsman's popping crease than something else.
14. (obsolete) Unwilling; averse; reluctant.
  Quotations
  For wiser brutes were backward to be slaves.
  1713, Alexander Pope, Windsor Forest, line 50
15. (obsolete) Already past or gone; bygone.
  Quotations
  The soul forgets her schemes of Hope and Pride, / and flies unconscious o'er each backward year.
  1812–1818, George Gordon Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, canto 2, verse 24
adverb
comparative more backward, superlative most backward
1. At, near or towards the rear of something.
2. In a direction opposite to that in which someone or something is facing or normally pointing.
3. In a direction opposite to the usual direction of movement.
4. (figuratively) Oppositely to the desired direction of progress, or from a better to a worse state.
  Quotations
  The work went backward.
  1700, John Dryden, Theodore and Honoria
5. In a reversed orientation; back to front.
6. In a reversed order or sequence.
7. Toward or into the past.
8. (obsolete) In the past.
9. By way of reflection; reflexively.
  Quotations
  the Mind can backward caſt Upon herself, her understanding Light
  1599, John Davies, Nosce Teipsum
  It was still possible — perhaps it might be inevitable — for him to accept frankly the altered conditions, and avow Baldassarre's existence; but hardly without casting an unpleasant light backward on his original reticence […]
  1862, George Eliot, Romola‎
noun
1. The state behind or past.
  Quotations
  In the dark backward and abysm of time.
  1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii]